Site5 Review

Founded in 1999, by Rod Armstrong and Matt Lightner, Site5 is a California-based hosting company named so because they wanted to be a little different and didn’t want to use the word “hosting” in the title, they have servers in about 9 countries and pride themselves in stating that they are a serious choice for developers and web designers.

Now co-owned by Joel Brown and Ben Welch-Bolen, Site5 is billed as a 100% green company and does not have a physical office; but has its employees spread out evenly and has them working from their homes. This is one of the reasons they have kept their rates low because they can keep their overheads low. And the fact that Site5 has been around for nearly 20 years is a good reason to believe that they have kept up with the technological evolution the industry has seen.

Site5’s servers are spread across the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, Romania, France, Netherlands, China, Singapore and São Paulo, and is a part of hosting giant Endurance International Group (EIG) which also owns other big brands (over 83) such as Hostgator, iPage, Justhost and Bluehost, to give you an idea. The company offers several services that include Site5 web hosting, Site5 reseller hosting and fully managed VPS.

Just like what you would expect from a Site5 hosting review, we will look at some key features of the host such as customer support, pricing plans, uptime, security features and other factors.

Customer Support

Supported by EIG’s scale and resources Site5, is not known to outsource their customer support. This essentially means it is in-house and consists of professionals that are highly skilled, well trained and proficient in troubleshooting. A lot of Site5 reviews have praised the company’s excellent after sales service, customer support and their dedicated nature.

Live Chat/Email/Telephone

Site5’s customer support is apparent when they display a “Chat with Us” button prominently displayed on their homepage. To access this section, you will have to log in using your details (name, billing username and password and the hosting package that you are using). Within minutes, you will be greeted by a helpful technician who will then proceed to address your query and solve it as quickly as possible.

But since Site5 prides itself on being a top choice for web designers and developers, do not expect the handholding if you are a beginner in the field. This could be a drawback for you if you do not have much knowledge about it. But if this is the case, Site5 has other sections that you will find handy.

The phone support (888-748-3526) is pretty good and you will be connected to an executive who will answer your queries promptly and accurately. Customer reviews about this have been varied, but they have been mostly positive.

Uptime

On this page, Site5 claims that they have drafted their own unique 99.9% uptime guarantee. They say that if your server is not available for the guaranteed amount of the time within a certain month, the company will provide a prorated credit for the time. They say that you should not be paying for any lapses in the service.

Unlike other hosts that offer such guarantees but have no intention of mentioning what happens if the uptime figure is met, Site5 provides a prorated credit. They make it clear that this guarantee applies only to unscheduled outages. In case it’s a planned server maintenance, they will send out emails to customers informing them about it. Overall, Site5 has an excellent reputation when it comes to uptime.

Key Features

Unmetered Disk Space/Bandwidth

Site5 is one of the few companies that offers unmetered disk space for all your hosting needs. This essentially means that you are not billed according to the disk space or bandwidth you use. You can use the bandwidth and disk usage as you like, and you will be notified by the company only if this usage causes them any concern.

Free Migration

Site5 will help you with moving your databases, emails and website files, and more if you have your website hosted with another web hosting company. The company understands that moving a website from a host you have been using for years can be a painful process and their migration experts can take care of this for you for free. They will take care of all the processes such as scheduling the moving time, backing up your website/content and other such processes.

45-Day Money Back Guarantee

Site5 guarantees you a 45-day money back guarantee, which means you have plenty of time to test them out. This means that the company will refund your money if you are not 100% satisfied with the service. You can read more about this guarantee here.

Nightly Backups

Site5 understand how important backups are and hence provides nightly backups for your peace of mind and the knowledge that your data is safe. They provide a backup functionality with each hosting account and also lets you download your backup with a few simple steps and have access to your archived files.

One-Click Installs

You can have your website up and running in no time with Site5’s one-click installs of the most popular software such as eggBlog, Drupal, Serendipity, WebCalendar, Geeklog, SilverStripe, MyWebSQL, osCommerce, Moodle and many more.

DNS Support

With Site5, you have total control of your domain name using the DNS Zone File Editor. This comes in handy for stuff such as pointing a subdomain to a static IP address or redirecting mail to third-party servers.

Pricing Plans

For a company of its repute, Site5 is expected to offer a ton of plans and it does. Let us take a look at their pricing plans of web and reseller hosting and fully-managed VPS.

Web Hosting

Site5 offers you the incredible infrastructure and features in these three fantastic plans:

hostBasic: If you are just getting started, this is the best economic plan for you and is suitable for around 10,000 visits. Starting at $6.95 per month, the plan includes 1 website, unmetered disk space and bandwidth, free migration to Site5, 99.9% uptime guarantee, 45-day money back guarantee, free backups and backstage (an interface to manage every aspect of your hosting account). The plan is available for a yearly ($8.95 per month) or 24 months (best value at $6.95 per month). There is no monthly payment plan available.

hostPro: This is for those with larger or multiple websites and is suitable for around 25,000 visits. Starting at $10.95 per month, the plan includes unlimited websites, unmetered disk space and bandwidth, free migration to Site5, 99.9% uptime guarantee, 45-day money back guarantee, free backups, and backstage (an interface to manage every aspect of your hosting account). The plan is available for a yearly ($11.95 per month) or 24 months (best value at $10.95 per month). There is also a monthly payment plan available for $12.95 per month.

hostPro + Turbo: This is for those with larger or multiple websites and is suitable for around 100,000 visits. Starting at $13.95 per month, the plan includes unlimited websites, unmetered disk space and bandwidth, free migration to Site5, 99.9% uptime guarantee, 45-day money back guarantee, free backups and backstage (an interface to manage every aspect of your hosting account). The plan is available for a yearly ($14.95 per month) or 24 months (best value at $13.95 per month). There is also a monthly payment plan available for $19.95 per month.

All these plans include disaster recovery backups, 24x7 support, unmetered bandwidth and disk space. They also include backstage account manager, malware protection, AWStats (for keeping track of your access and error logs, subdomain stats and latest visitors), e-commerce features (such as ZenCart, CubeCart and osCommerce, FTP and SFTP access and much more.

Reseller

The Site5 reseller hosting offers three plans; let’s take a look at them:

All plans include fully anonymous hosting (so that the clients don’t find out you are a reseller), custom DNS nameservers (if you don’t want to use generic name servers), RVSkin cPanel skin management and many other such features.

Fully Managed VPS

Get the unmatched power, flexibility and speed with Site5’s VPS package. They have 7 plans:

VPS2: This plan costs $64.80 per month and includes 2 cores, 2GB RAM, disk space of 50GB and a 1TB bandwidth.

VPS3: This plan costs $89 per month and includes 2 cores, 3GB RAM, disk space of 75GB and a 1.5TB bandwidth.

VPS4: This plan costs $117 per month and includes 4 cores, 4GB RAM, disk space of 100GB and a 2TB bandwidth.

VPS5: This plan costs $166 per month and includes 4 cores, 5GB RAM, disk space of 125GB and a 2.5TB bandwidth.

VPS6: This plan costs $188 per month and includes 6 cores, 6GB RAM, disk space of 150GB and a 3TB bandwidth.

VPS7: This plan costs $276 per month and includes 8 cores, 8GB RAM, disk space of 200GB and a 4TB bandwidth.

VPS8: This plan costs $359 per month and includes 8 cores, 10GB RAM, disk space of 250GB and a 5TB bandwidth.

With all these plans you are entitled to cPanel/WHM control panel, 2 IP addresses and full management. You also get dedicated server resources (to provide the performance you need), RAID 10 storage (for the best combination of availability, performance and redundancy) and much more.

Security Features

Let's look at some of their main security features:

Malware Protection from Sucuri

Site5 has partnered with Sucuri who are website security experts and provide security against many threats such as phishing attempts, cross-site scripting, hidden iframes, and drive-by downloads to name a few. However, this is a paid service and you can read more about it here.

SSL Certificates

The Secure Socket Layer ensures secure communication between the client and the server. Site5 has many SSL plans that you may want to use if you work with any type of sensitive information. To more about Site5’s plans, click here.

SSH Access

This is a Secure Shell protocol and UNIX-based command interface to run commands on a remote computer securely. It provides many options for strong encryption and protects the security and integrity of the connection. You can get a general overview of Site5’s SSH here.

Pros and Cons

All in all, let's have a look at what they offer:

Pros

Customers have praised the above-average page load times.

Great customer support that has been appreciated by customers.

45-day money back guarantee when most providers only give a 30-day guarantee.

Nightly backups are a great feature to keep your data safe and secure.

Free website transfers are a great help to customers who are making the move from a different host.

Unmetered bandwidth and disk space with standard packages.

Cons

No free SSL certificates when quite a lot of providers are nowadays offering them with their plans.

Some customers may find the pricing a bit expensive.

Conclusion

As it is apparent by the services they provide, Site5 offers great web hosting. Their customer support is excellent and is known to respond to their customers in real time, and is well informed. They also offer money-back and uptime guarantees, and that is the mark of a good provider.